realistic anthias lifespan?
 

i had a trio of maldive lyretails,...keyword being had....one just died few days ago noticing she just kind of stopped eating....now i have a second one that just all of a sudden stopped eating as well.....kinda hit and miss when i see her.... i've had both for bout a year.....



so realistically whats the lifespan on anthias's?

A lot more than a year.

Anthias is prone to parasite and flesh eating diesease. Does yours have a cut on it?

I've had our Female lyretail for 3.5 years and a male lyretail for 2.5 years. Both were fullsized when purchased. I'd expect Anthias to live for over 10 years.

dun think they she has a cut on her.....could how they were caught be a factor? cause they are maldive anthias's

Maldives is actually a reputable collection location. I haven't heard any reports of poor practices being used to collect there.

However, just based on the fact these are Anthias, collection shouldn't be an issue no matter where they are collected. Simply because of the way Anthias shoal and congregate together, they are easily caught with nets, and I have never heard of Anthias being juiced.

That said, even though they are Lyretais, their still anthias. Some adapt, some don't. Some are touchy, some you can throw against a wall and they'll live for 5 more years. Its luck of the draw. How often did you feed them?

I couldn't keep mine alive past 5-6 years. I had Lyretails & Bartletts. I'd consider these the hardiest.

Once the more touchy species get past acclimation I don't see why they also wouldn't live this long given good feeding, maintenance & large enough tank.

I would like to hear of other experiences of those that have kept anthias longer & how they cared for them.

Is there literature or communications from, say, public aquaria on this? My lyretails are 3+ years now. If they live that long though, that'll be great!!

None that I am aware of. It was more of an estimation based on a few different factors I've observed.

I wonder if public aquaria track stuff like this on their smaller fish?

oh i feed them once a day some of sanjay's mix....hummmmmmm

the female just died this morning so in like 2-3days i've lost two anthias's but no other fish (non anthias) are having problems...... hummmmmm

and the 3rd one didnt eat at all last night either and i think he might be on his way out to...seriously im baffled at what happened and to only be effecting the anthias's


is there any possibility that they were spawning, and something threw them off because i heard some fish do not eat during spawning season?

well this sucks i finally lost the 3rd one.......all with in a week.....all other fish seem ok...

Do they look/act normal before dying?

Something is definitely going on if you lost 3 in a week. That's either a serious coincidence, or something or someone is killing your fish.

"I feed once a day"

That's a big issue with anthias, they should be fed several times a day. It's possible your fish have just slowly starved to death.

Otherwise healthy anthias take a very long time to actually starve to death. I'm thinking some sort of disease. IME internal parasites and bacterial infections are way more common that easily visible things like ich. Did you add any fish lately?

they all basically stopped eating it seemed like they were healthy here's a pic of the one that died just last night last...on saturday
http://i367.photobucket.com/albums/o...f/lyretail.jpg

im baffled but the parasite does sound like good possibility.

as far as feeding once a day i usually feed pretty heavy, and i've had the fish on feeding once a day for almost a year now with no problems.(even missed days here and there) i dont think they starved to death over the period of a 10-12months.....

Re: realistic anthias lifespan?
 

IME 2 -5 years max depending on species.

Several Anthias dying within a few days of one another indicates a problem and an unnatural lifespan.

That fish looks healthy and not starved. I'd have to guess you intoduced some sort of pathogen.

^^i cant garuntee it by anymeans picked up a zoa pack from a guy on the forums probably i'd guess week or 2 before hand....wander if he had something?

It's always a possibility. I once introduced a parasite with a bunch of caulerpa :-/

well my clownfish picked up something to...definately parasite now..UGH....considering i dont have many fish left now......and i dun have a quarantine tank......

i think last time i pickup anything thats not local.....i havent changed anything in months, then picked up a zoa pack and blaam week or so later fish started to die.......this is depressing

Peter,
I'm at home right now and don't have access to my records, but we still have some squampinnis that I acquired in 1998 from the Red Sea, and we have a Bartletts that is probably six years old. These are maximums though, the rest of these groups have died during the interim. We keep records on all our fish, but we handle the small ones as groups, not individually I.D.'d - so it does get a bit difficult tracking them sometimes.

Jubjub,
It is relatively common for invertebrates to serve as a mechanical disease vectors - although I can't tell you what might be the cause in this case. It is common practice for dealers to keep certain delicate fish in with their inverts (pinnatus batfish, seahorses, etc.) If they have an active infection, the water and mucus you move along with any inverts from that tank can carry the disease over.

Jay